When Helping Hurts Helpers: Anticipatory versus Reactive Helping, Helper’s Relative Status, and Recipient Self-Threat

Abstract

Research on workplace helping suggests that helpers receive positive outcomes in return for their help. We argue that this predominantly positive view of recipient reactions to helpers is because the literature has not adequately distinguished the outcomes of reactive helping (i.e., assistance provided in response to a request) from those of anticipatory helping (i.e., assistance offered or provided in advance of being asked). We propose that anticipatory helping, especially from helpers with higher status than the recipient, is more self-threatening to recipients than reactive helping; hence, recipients are less likely to accept this help and more likely to lower their evaluations of both the helper’s performance and their relationship with the helper. We find support for these hypotheses with four studies and one supplemental study that use experimental and field methodologies across a range of work contexts and social exchange relationships. Because our findings imply that both peer and higher status employees should withhold anticipatory help, which is impractical and potentially detrimental, we identify how these helpers can instead mitigate the negative effects of anticipatory helping by signaling a more balanced social exchange relationship with the recipient. We discuss how our findings expand research on helping, social exchange, and status.